Language Arts 6 B
Course Summary
Throughout this course, the student will deepen his appreciation of literature by reading a variety of
works in different genres, including the novel Walk Two Moons. The student will examine the attitudes
and behaviors of the characters in the stories, and respond to the reading selections by writing
paragraphs and short essays. The student will develop oral communication skills and improved
listening comprehension by reading and listening to strategically chosen passages that will be shared
with his teacher and Learning Coach. The student will also continue to develop as a writer, applying
the writing process to compose in a variety of forms, including personal narratives, stories, speeches,
and responses to literature. These writing projects will help the student focus on creating correct and
well-crafted sentences, organizing paragraphs effectively, developing a personal writing style, and
learning fundamental research skills. Activities incorporating critical thinking skills sharpen analytical
abilities. Grammar, vocabulary, and spelling exercises are embedded throughout the course to ensure
students master the conventions of Standard English.
How Should We Deal with Bullies?
1. Designating Book Response Activity Time
 Set up a "Book Response Activity" time
 Select an independent reading book and response activity
Genre Focus: Short Stories
 Draw conclusions about characters, ideas, and events
 Identify cause and effect relationships
 Use sequence to comprehend the story
 Paraphrase and summarize to demonstrate understanding
 Identify and evaluate events that move the plot forward
 Analyze characters based on their thoughts, words, and actions
Drawing Conclusions
 Draw conclusions about events, characters, and settings
 Identify author's purpose
 Use base words to figure out word meanings
 Identify clauses
 Differentiate between independent clauses and dependent clauses
 Distinguish between clauses and phrases
Writing Workshop Pt. 1: Short Story
 Write to entertain
 Use a range of strategies including dialogue, and concrete language to develop
plot, setting, and character
 Identify dependent and independent clauses
Fiction Book Response Activity
 Continue reading a self-selected fiction book
Understanding Cause and Effect
 Analyze texts by identifying cause-and-effect relationships
 Identify and analyze internal and external conflict
 Identify suffixes
 Identify parts of speech
 Analyze clauses as parts of speech
Identifying Sequence
 Identify and understand sequence
 Explain and analyze plot structure, including rising action, climax, and
resolution
 Understand word structure: prefixes
 Use commas in a series
 Use commas in direct address
Paraphrasing and Summarizing
 Paraphrase and summarize text to demonstrate understanding
 Paraphrase and summarize text to recall and organize ideas
Comparing Solutions
 Connect, compare, and contrast across texts
 Understand and evaluate text by analyzing problem/solution text structure
Writing Workshop Pt. 2: Short Story
 Write to entertain
 Write stories or narrative pieces
 Communicate the significance of the events in the plot
Fiction Book Response Activity
 Finish reading your book response selection today
 Identify important events from the book
Unit Review
There are no objectives for this lesson.
Unit Test
There are no objectives for this lesson.
What Makes a Hero?
Genre Focus: Folktale/Fantasy/Myth
 Activate prior knowledge
 Clarify meaning
 Make predictions
 Identify distinguishing features of folktales, fantasies, and myths
 Determine characteristics of a hero or heroine
 Identify theme and setting
 Understand and analyze cultural context
Activating Prior Knowledge
 Activate prior knowledge
 Compare and contrast literary heroes and real-life heroes
 Explore word origins to understand historical influences in English
 Identify simple sentences
 Capitalize sentences
Writing Workshop Pt. 1: Fable
 Create plot with characteristics of the genre
 Develop appropriate voice
 Understand and use a variety of sentence types
 Identify independent and dependent clauses
Fiction Book Response Activity
 Select a response activity that is appropriate for the content of a self-selected
book
 Begin drafting a response that reflects the content of the book
Clarifying
 Clarify meaning
 Recognize the cultural context of Greek mythology
 Recognize the cultural context of the Wild West
 Recognize borrowed words
Comparing and Contrasting
 Compare and contrast characters
 Recognize and analyze theme
 Understand word sources
Predicting
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Use commas in compound sentences
Use commas in complex sentences
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Make predictions
Analyze settings
Understand word histories
Recognize run-on sentences
Correct run-on sentences
Comparing Heroes
 Compare and contrast heroes
 Analyze and compare myths, fables, and their heroes
Fiction Book Response Activity
 Continue drafting a response to a self-selected fiction book
Writing Workshop Pt. 2: Fable
 Make corrections to improve voice, point of view, and dialogue
 Correct spelling and syntax errors
 Understand and use a variety of sentence types
Unit Review
There are no objectives for this lesson.
Unit Test
There are no objectives for this lesson.
What Can We Learn from Our Mistakes?
Genre Focus: Historical Fiction and Nonfiction
 Synthesize to demonstrate comprehension of text
 Take notes and use them to recall ideas
Synthesizing
 Synthesize to demonstrate comprehension of text
 Identify symbols and analyze their use
 Use base words and roots to understand word meanings
 Find verbs
Fiction Book Response Activity
 Complete a response activity that reflects the content of a self-selected book
Writing Workshop Pt. 1: Personal Narrative
 Write a personal narrative
 Develop drafts by elaborating on an initial idea
 Write descriptive paragraphs and compositions
 Write narratives that maintain clear focus and point of view
Nonfiction Book Response Activity
 Select a nonfiction book to read for enjoyment
 Begin reading a self-selected book
Determining Main Idea and Supporting Details
 Determine main ideas and supporting details
 Explain how the choice of narrator affects a story
 Understand word structure: Latin roots
 Use subject-verb agreement when the verb is separated from the subject
Evaluating
 Evaluate literature and historical context
 Understand how description affects the story and the reader
 Understand word structure, using Greek roots
 Make subjects and verbs agree with sentences that begin with here or there
 Understand subject-verb agreement in inverted sentences
Nonfiction Book Response Activity
 Continue to read a self-selected book
 Monitor your reading to ensure comprehension
Taking and Reviewing Notes
 Take notes and review them to understand and recall ideas from texts
 Identify chronological, or time, order
 Recognize Anglo-Saxon roots
 Determine subject-verb agreement for special noun subjects
Comparing Authors' Credibility
 Compare and contrast authors' credibility across texts
 Find similarities and differences across texts
 Read and understand historical texts representing a variety of authors
Writing Workshop Pt. 2: Personal Narrative
 Revise drafts for meaning, tone, and word choice
Nonfiction Book Response Activity
 Finish reading your book response selection today
 Identify important events from the book
Unit Review
There are no objectives for this lesson.
Unit Test
There are no objectives for this lesson.
What Makes a Friend?
Genre Focus: Drama
 Skim and scan to preview and identify text structure
 Clarify meaning by questioning and rereading
 Understand and use literary terms, such as act and scene, and dialogue
 Identify the distinguishing features and styles of drama
Visualizing
 Understand and visualize informational and narrative text including drama
 Understand and use literary terms, such as act, scene, and script
 Analyze how authors use dialect and slang in a literary text
Writing Workshop Pt. 1: Speech
 Write expository paragraphs to explain and inform
 Maintain clear purpose and focus
 Identify and correctly use apostrophes
Nonfiction Book Response Activity
 Choose a response activity that is appropriate for the content of a self-selected
book
 Begin drafting a response that reflects the content of the book
Clarifying
 Connect and clarify main ideas and concepts, and identify their relationship to
other sources and topics
 Recognize and analyze idioms
 Clarify meaning by questioning and reading
 Predict what will happen in the selection
 Identify and correctly use semicolons
Nonfiction Book Response Activity
 Continue drafting an appropriate response to a self-selected nonfiction book
Skimming and Scanning
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Predicting
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Skim to get an overview of a selection
Scan to find specific information styles
Learn distinguishing features of plays and use this knowledge to interpret and
discuss them
Understand and use drama-related terms across a variety of texts
Identify and use correct punctuation, including colons with lists
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Predict what will happen in a story
Understand and use literary terms, such as dialogue, across a variety of
literary texts
 Analyze how authors use dialogue to develop plot
Comparing Primary and Secondary Source Documents
 Find similarities and differences across texts
 Compare information from several sources
 Identify the point of view in texts
 Compare the feelings of authors and/or characters as expressed in multiple
texts
Writing Workshop Pt. 2: Speech
 Maintain clear purpose and focus
 Revise and edit a speech
 Identify and correctly use apostrophes
Unit Review
There are no objectives for this lesson.
Unit Test
There are no objectives for this lesson.
Nonfiction Book Response Activity
 Complete an activity from the list of Book Response options
 Complete an activity that reflects the content of a self-selected book
Walk Two Moons
Setting Background for Walk Two Moons
 Understand the background of the novel
 Learn about the author’s life
Walk Two Moons, Chapters 1–4
 Read and analyze the text
 Define new vocabulary and identify unfamiliar words in context
 Define and identify flashback and symbol
 Identify and analyze sensory details and figurative language
 Identify and analyze the author’s use of dialogue and description
Walk Two Moons, Chapters 5–8
 Identify elements of fiction
 Develop and apply effective comprehension strategies
 Read and analyze the text
 Define new vocabulary and identify unfamiliar words in context
Walk Two Moons, Chapters 9–11
 Read and analyze the text
 Define new vocabulary and identify unfamiliar words in context
 Develop and apply effective comprehension strategies
 Identify and analyze the literary elements of setting, characterization, plot,
and the resolution of the conflict of a story
 Prepare an oral report
Walk Two Moons, Chapters 12–14
 Determine the main idea or essential message through inferring, summarizing,
and identifying relevant details
 Read and analyze the text
 Define new vocabulary and identify words in context
Walk Two Moons, Chapters 15–18
 Read and analyze the text
 Define new vocabulary and identify words in context
 Make predictions in order to become actively involved in reading
 Confirm or refute predictions while reading
 Identify foreshadowing
Walk Two Moons, Chapters 19–22
 Read and analyze the text
 Define new vocabulary and identify words in context
 Set a purpose for reading
Walk Two Moons, Chapters 23–25
 Identify figurative language
 Read and analyze the text
 Define new vocabulary and identify words in context
Walk Two Moons, Chapters 26–29
 Analyze characters
 Read and analyze the text
 Define new vocabulary and identify words in context
Walk Two Moons, Chapters 30–32
 Read and analyze the text
 Define new vocabulary and identify words in context
Walk Two Moons, Chapters 33–37
 Read and analyze the text
 Define new vocabulary and identify words in context
Walk Two Moons, Chapters 38–41
 Read and analyze the text
 Define new vocabulary and identify words in context
Walk Two Moons, Chapters 42–44
 Read and analyze the text
 Define new vocabulary and identify words in context
 Analyze the elements of plot structure, including exposition, setting, character
development, rising/falling action, conflict/resolution, and theme
Walk Two Moons, Unit Review
 Review vocabulary and literary elements including plot, character, setting, and
theme
 Study vocabulary and review previous lesson goals
Walk Two Moons, Unit Test
 Complete unit assessment